richest man

When it comes to getting financial inspiration, it never hurts to follow the advice of some of the most successful people out there. In fact, you should actively seek the thoughts of those who have been successful to try to find inspiration to achieve your own financial goals. You can learn a lot from the words of those like Warren Buffett, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. It’s even better if the person who is successful and wealthy is also frugal. You can do that with a new book “The World’s Richest Man: Carlos Slim In His Own Words”

Although in 2014 Carlos Slim was ranked at number two behind Bill Gates as the richest man in the world, he did previously top the list in 2010 as the first person from a developing country to ever to do. Despite his wealth, he still lives in the same house he has for the last 40 years.

The book contains a collection of over 200 quotes giving Carlos Slim’s perspective about business, corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, management, philanthropy, smart investing and wealth. It should give anyone who wants to create wealth a wonderful deposit of inspiration and down-to-earth advice on a variety of business related topics.

Below you’ll find 10 quotes excepted from the book and their original sources:

2. “Share price is important — in the end. But when does the end come?”
— Financial Times, February 25, 2013

3. “Any personal crisis — you have to use it to get stronger.”
— New Yorker, June 1, 2009

4. “In acquisition, we don’t really move people. We cannot get involved at that level with so many companies. Besides, if you move people, they will run.”
— Korn/Ferry Briefings on Talent & Leadership, Fall 2010

5. “Buying well is a discipline.”
— Arizona Republic, May 30, 2007

6. “Mistakes are normal and human. Make them small, accept them, correct them, and forget them.”
— American University of Beirut, March 18, 2010

7. “Periods of excess make you ambitious, but not always for the right thing.”
— Korn/Ferry Briefings on Talent & Leadership, Fall 2010

8. “I invest for the long term, not the short. If you buy something because it’s cheap, that’s only speculation.”
— New Yorker, June 1, 2009

10. “I don’t believe too much in luck. I believe in circumstances. I believe in work.”
— George Washington University Global Forum, October 29, 2010

Personally, I find quotes number three, six and ten appeal to me the most from the ten listed above. We all have crisis which we have to overcome, and using them to make you stronger and better is a key to not repeating them again. It’s also vitally important to realize that everyone makes mistakes. The only thing that’s wrong with mistakes is if you don’t learn from them so that you repeat the same ones again and again. Finally, while there may be luck that plays a part for some people building wealth, for the vast majority of us, it’s a matter of creating opportunity from the circumstances we find through our own work.

Of course, that’s just me. Quotes tend to hit different people and different ways, and chances are others may appeal to you more. What is pretty certain is that you can find a large amount of inspiration among the 200 quotes in the book.

If you follow the same routine as Robert Orban (“Every morning I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work”), you had the opportunity to see if you made it as one of the newest members of the Forbes richest people in the world list. With less than 2000 people claiming one of these coveted spots, the likelihood that you have another year of work is pretty high.

Bill Gates seems to have followed his money tips well for 2014. After a four year hiatus from the top spot, he regained the title of richest man in the world. With a net worth of $76 billion, he moved passed Carlos Slim Helu ($72 billion) who made his fortune in the Mexican telecom industry. Warren Buffett, who also has some sound money tips, remained in fourth position, the same spot he held last year.

To make the top 25 richest people in the world, you needed to have a net worth of nearly $25 billion. Only a single person, Carl Icahn, was able to make that list with less, and he just barely missed it at $24.5 billion.

There were a record number of billionaires this year according to Forbes. In total, there were 1,645 billionaires who made the list, up from 1,426 who made the list in 2013. This year the average net worth came in at $4.7 billion for those who made the list. The combined total value of these billionaires reached $6.4 trillion, a cool $1 trillion more than last year,which was $5.4 trillion.

The vast majority of the billionaires made their fortunes on their own. Of the 1,645 billionaires on the list, 66% (1,080) were self-made. 34% of those on the list inherited at least a portion of their wealth, with 21% (352) still growing that wealth and 13% (207) living off the inheritance.

Mark Zuckerberg was the biggest gainer of net worth over the past year by more than doubling his net worth from 2013 to $28.5 billion in 2014, moving into the top 25 list at number 21. He could thank his good fortune on his stake in Facebook stock which dramatically increased in the past year.

There were quite a few new faces to the list. There were a total of 268 newcomers added to this year. This was the highest number ever added by 42 people, when 226 new billionaires were added to the list in 2008. This included a record number of 172 women, a 25% increase from the 2013 list.

There were also those who didn’t have the best of years. A total of 100 people fell off the list, with another 16 passing away over the year.